Uncontrolled hippos, the legacy of Pablo Escobar that has to mistreat Colombia | The animal population continues to grow.

2023-06-09 18:30:59

Currently, Colombia has a threat to its ecosystem: the presence of hippos, an invasive species that grew thanks to the well-known drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. According to an article in the magazine Nature, the animals descend from three females and one male illegally imported by the leader of the cartel. After his death in 1993, the hippos escaped from his farm and settled in the Magdalena river. Without natural predators, these giant herbivores reproduced uncontrollably and, according to what the UNQ Science News Agencyformed the largest population of animals outside of the African continent.

According to the latest census, the invasive hippo population is larger than researchers predicted. Based on the reproductive rate, scientists guessed there were about ninety-eight animals; however, the latest results reveal an alarming number of around two hundred. At present, they are considered the largest invasive species in the world and threaten native plants and animals of the country.

giant but elusive

The Colombian Ministry of the Environment faced the challenge of the census since counting them is not easy. Although they are large, they know how to hide: they are nocturnal, submerged in water for much of the day, and are capable of covering great distances. The censitas team, researchers from the National University of Colombia and the Humboldt and Cornare Institute (an environmental agency), made several trips to count animals. Even in places that could not be reached safely, they used drones or footprints to estimate the population.

Thanks to this monitoring, the team of scientists was able to document the damage that hippos cause in the Colombian ecosystem. As they moved, the weight of their huge bodies erodes the banks of the rivers and opens muddy paths inside the forests. In addition, they compete for the habitat of other native animals such as the Antillean manatee, neotropical otter and capybara.

Another problem that was observed is that in the hippo population there are more than 35 percent of juveniles, which indicates that the reproduction rate is very high. This could occur because Colombia has more favorable environmental conditions than the African continent, so they reach sexual maturity earlier. Reproductive success also occurs because, having more territory and resources, there are fewer fights.

Is sacrificing the solution?

In 2009 Colombian officials ordered kill one of the aggressive males. One of the soldiers had his photo taken and this sparked outrage and halted efforts to control the hippo population. In fact, there are communities that now depend on tourism that has hippos as its main attraction. It should also be mentioned that fishing communities live in constant fear of these territorial animals that can easily injure people. During 2020 and 2021, serious attacks on humans and a car accident were reported, the result of which was a dead hippo in the middle of the road..

Under this premise, exploring solutions is essential. One strategy currently being evaluated is administer contraceptives to animals with darts; an initiative that avoids replication but is slow, expensive, and difficult to implement on a large scale. One study estimated that this method could eradicate hippos in forty-five years at a cost of at least 850 thousand dollars. Another strategy would be capture, anesthetize, and transport hippos by helicopter to a facility to be castrated. This is even more expensive and would take up to fifty-two years to eradicate. To all this is added that the calculated years are actually underestimates because the calculations were made taking into account the number of animals prior to the census.

From this perspective, scientists advocate slaughter the animals as it would solve the problem before it becomes impossible to fix. The environment is facing losses of native flora and fauna in Colombia, the second most biodiverse country in the world.

Regarding the new findings, the environment ministry has yet to comment on how it would handle the growing hippo population.